


Drabbles in Time

by Morgeil



Category: Brother Cadfael - Peters, Doctor Who
Genre: Community: dw100, Community: who_otp, Crossover, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-09-20
Packaged: 2017-10-06 14:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgeil/pseuds/Morgeil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scattered drabbles I have written since 2003, featuring a variety of Doctors and eras.  Some for challenges, some on a whim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: OCs

Two girls were bickering in a dark, foggy street.

"You think I'm mad? I'm not going to do that!" exclaimed one indignantly.

"Why? You're not scared, are you?" her companion taunted.

"I'm not scared," the other replied a bit too quickly. "But it's rash to just go waltzing in somewhere people had vanished from."

"That was years ago. And it was only two people…"

"No, four. Remember?"

"I don't read the papers as much as you. Admit it, you're scared…"

And the argument continued in front of a large wooden gate, the words "IM Foreman" barely visible through the blackness.


	2. Intrusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Fifth Doctor and Turlough, Brother Cadfael and Abbot Radolfus  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "history". Crossover with _Cadfael_.

The middle-aged monk was studying the corpse on the table with keen interest, when the abbot burst urgently (and quiet unannounced) into the small cabin.

He had visitors: a tall, fair-haired gentleman in his early thirties and a red-haired youth both dressed in the strangest manner the monk had ever seen.

The former smiled widely, with a cheerful "Hello!" The abbot ignored him and spoke.

"I apologize for intruding upon the task I have given you, Brother Cadfael, but these men were found in the woods surrounding the abbey. They have information that might prove useful to your little mystery..."


	3. Mommy, Where Do Plot Devices Go When They Die?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Seventh Doctor and Mel  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "reunion".

The door was closed.

And also located in a dusty, neglected TARDIS corridor. Two criteria that just invited nosiness.

Blast these doors. Too tempting…

Mel opened it.

The room was packed with a wide variety of strange…things. (Was that a recorder nestled in the middle of that wirey apparatus?)

She examined the object nearest her foot: a piece of control panel that contained a simple button. The words "Fast Return Switch" were written above it. (In felt tip?)

Sheepish coughing was heard from behind her. "Oh dear, how embarrassing."

"What is this room, Doctor?"

"A resting place for silly ideas."


	4. Defeat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Sixth Doctor and Mel

He stared at the blood-stained ground in disbelief. How was this possible? To travel so far, persevere so long... only for it to end like this?

He was a Time Lord. A member of one of the oldest, wisest and most technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy…

"Doctor, aren't you being a tad melodramatic?"

And his companion had just royally kicked his arse in _Halo._

He stared open-mouthed at the screen before exploding. "I can't believe you beat me! _Me!_ An all-knowing Time Lord… out stealthed by _you!_"

Mel, controller in hand, rolled her eyes as the passionate tirade continued.


	5. Normality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Ian and Barbara  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "Nothing will change our world".

Ian picked at the dust grains on his jacket. Sometimes the capriciousness of the Ship confounded him. Its cleaning gadgets could remove alien slime, burn marks, the driest of blood...

But not the simplicity that is dust. Oh no...

The madness of the life he led! Constant danger, no inkling of the life he once had...

He nearly tripped over Barbara, so preoccupied he was grumbling. She was sitting on the control room floor: a sewing needle and one of Vicki's favorite garments in her hands.

A sewing needle. In the TARDIS...

Ian smiled for the first time that day.


	6. Protector

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "wounded".

"Always the protector, eh, my boy?"

Sadness was woven into the Doctor's words as they helped carry Ian into the Ship. Susan was biting back tears, frightened by the sheer amount of blood.

Barbara was unusually calm as she gently prevented him from trying to stand on his own. That face didn't fool Ian. Merely a mask that would crumble as soon as she was alone.

He wanted to hold her then, but lacked the strength.

A soft curtain of black slowly closed over his vision, but not before Barbara's eyes left the floor and finally met his.

No regrets.


	7. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Ian and Barbara  
>   
> Alternate ending to "Planet of Giants".

Too late.

When it really, honestly counted. They were too late.

He was not a man of many tears. But nevertheless, moist crystals silently slid down his cheek as his hand numbly caressed her hair.

Unnaturally stiff. Unnaturally cold. Her body lay on the padded cot. She had survived lust, war, radiation…

But.

_"If we get her back to her normal size, that dose of insecticide will be seventy times less dangerous. Practically nothing at all."_

Liar.

He surrenders to his inner storm of sadness and curls into a fetus on the Ship's floor.

Where is Ian Chesterton's strength now?


	8. Alien Presence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Third Doctor and Sarah Jane  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "bonfire/gunpowder".

Sometimes, she was afraid of him.

Sarah watched him now, sitting across from her on the other side of the bonfire. The flames danced shadows off his face and illuminated his white hair. The effect made him look incredibly timeless, wise... and almost dangerous.

This was a man who could paralyze bodyguards with a mere flick of his fingers, whose intellect could unravel the most nefarious of crimes and whose enthusiasm could brighten even the most grim situation.

He had an alien mind that was seemingly tamed only by his human compassion.

Sarah was glad he was on her side.


	9. Interesting Times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Barbara and Sir William.  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "soldier". Takes place during "The Crusade". The opening line is a famous ancient Chinese proverb.

_May you live in interesting times.___

There was nothing quite like war. War meant curious circumstances. War meant doing things you wouldn't normally do. Nor like doing.

I took my king's identity to save him, thought Sir William. The impulsive action had led to strange things. Now he was a captive of the enemy's forces, and yet treated with equal chivalry and kindness that could be expected from any English king.

Not to mention the surprise friendship of a most unusual, yet beautiful woman.

As he met her eyes, Sir William decided that maybe he shouldn't argue with fate anymore.


	10. This Never Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Barbara and Emperor Nero  
>   
> For the dw100 prompt "never happened". Takes place during "The Romans". Beware of crack.

He was on cloud nine. As one usually was when he just spent the night with the most beautiful, voluptuous creature that ever walked the earth. In fact, he was in such a good mood that he might actually compose today. Something flowery. Light, sweet and romantic…

He felt the figure laying next to him stir, then leave the bed. He smiled lazily. "Pleasant dreams, my sweet?"

Caesar Nero was answered with a large pillow that hit him roughly in the face.

"Satisfied now?" Barbara sneered at him. "You got what you wanted. Now leave me the bloody hell alone!"


	11. Let's Just Run Like Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Turlough and Mel  
>   
> For who_otp's second drabble tag, ages and ages ago. Pairing requested by uktechgirl.

There were few things - very few precious things - more annoying than perky Earth girls.

Particularly perky Earth girls who tried to talk him into dodging alien gunfire, Turlough mentally amended.

"Are you insane?" he hissed to flame-haired woman couched next to him. "We can't run out into that, we'll never make it out again!" Typical, he'd only met her an hour ago and she was already trying to get him killed.

"We'll make it. They're rotten shots anyway. We've been hiding behind this boulder for nearly twenty minutes and they haven't hit us."

"Well, there's about fifteen of those rotten shots out there. One of them is bound to get lucky."

Mel stamped her foot. "Wouldn't you rather die trying to escape?"

"No, I'd rather die while hiding here like a shameless coward. At least then it'll be _their_ stupidity that gets me killed and not _mine."_

Their argument was abruptly cut off by a contained explosion just inches above their heads and a spray of charred rock.

Mel ducked her head, holding in a shriek. "Okay, that's it. I'm not putting up with this anymore. C'mon."

Before Turlough could open his mouth to protest, she had already grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the waiting chaos with her. And after a further hour of dodging more bullets and silver-suited soldiers, they finally made it to safety.

"There," Mel chirped, impulsively pecking him on the cheek. "Now was that so bad?"

Turlough just fumed at her.


	12. In Good Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Six and Mel introspective thingy. Six/Mel-ish kinda sorta. Also written half an age ago. Please be kind.
> 
> Minor references to: "Trial", Evelyn's departure from the Doctor in the Big Finish audios and the novel _Business Unusual_ (which serves as Mel's introductory story).

The Doctor had never been a believer in fate. However, he _did_ believe that all things had their time; that some events happened simply because it was time for them to happen. That wasn't the same as fate. Not really.

It was only fitting, he thought as he looked back, that she would enter his life when she did. Peri's violent departure had taken a huge emotional toll, much greater than he would ever openly admit. And though his close friendship with the indomitable Evelyn Smythe had helped seal the wound, it never fully succeeded in removing the pain. What he had witnessed on that Matrix screen would haunt him for several incarnations to come.

Unfortunately, even his time with Evelyn couldn't last forever. For she too left him under tense circumstances, deciding abruptly to stay on Vilag and marry Rossiter. It was a situation that only bought him more guilt, as there were issues between them that were never resolved. Were _all_ the companions of this incarnation doomed to leave him in pain?

He was starting to feel every hour of his nine hundred years. He sensed the weariness in his body as it finally began to succumb to the pressures of his recent trials. He was _exhausted._ He had neither the energy nor desire for his characteristic bluster and there was nothing he wanted more now than to live out the end of his sixth incarnation in peace.

Then Melanie Bush came blundering into his life. Her presence radiated with charm, energy and enthusiasm... everything he didn't feel. She was the very last thing he wanted.

And, possibly, precisely what he needed.

Oh, he certainly fought it. He was rude to her, avoided her, discouraged her... anything in his power to prevent her from traveling with him. And to prevent the bleak, possible future she represented. For with Mel came the Vervoids... and with the Vervoids came the Valeyard.

However, in the end he gave in. For no matter how much he feared his future self, Melanie was a breath of fresh air. Her enthusiasm reminded him that the universe was not always filled with sorrow and her energy rejuvenated him when he felt his resources had finally been spent.

On occasion, the painful memories would still resurface and overwhelm him. But the moment he found himself slipping back into despair, she was there. Her hand would slip into his and there would be a infectious smile on her face, her flame-red hair catching the sun as she coaxed him back into the light.


End file.
